Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0027495, Fri, 1 Sep 2017 22:51:50 -0700

Subject
[a tall white fountain] ( mountain ) in [Pale Fire] -- and Jung
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((( If possible, i'd like to post this version -- i changed the last section
to make it less confusing. Thank you. )))

To: NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu




[Pale Fire] Lines 703 -- 707 from Canto Three:

And blood-black nothingness began to spin
A system of cells interlinked within
Cells interlinked within cells interlinked
Within one stem. And dreadfully distinct
Against the dark, a tall white fountain played.

Lines 704-707: A system, etc.
The fitting-in of the threefold “cells interlinked” is
most skillfully managed, and one derives logical satisfaction
from the “system” and “stem” interplay.


I'd be grateful if anyone could comment on these lines and
the commentary

( Not necessarily related to what I'm going to write below. )

I've read the relevant passages in Boyd's [...The Magic of Artistic Discovery]
and will be checking in the archives.

----- "one derives logical satisfaction" ???

( I have a reaction when VN mentions "mathematical"
"logical" etc . )

_________________
F/M(ountain) -- Fem./Male

Fe(Male)
Sy(Stem) --- is this the "satisfying" pattern?


Interlinked rooms made me think of the Borges story
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_of_Babel
and the J-Lo movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cell

cyst-stem

cyto- (before a vowel, cyt-), ... , from Latinized form of Greek
kytos "a hollow, receptacle, basket" (...); used in modern science
since c. 1859 for "cell," perhaps especially from the sense (in
Aristophanes) of "a cell of a hive of wasps or bees."
_________________

At first I thought it was just making fun of Freud (Jung), then
vague images started haunting me, and eventually I digged
out my Jung books for the first time in 15 years.

One image was this dream Jung had between ages 3-4, which he
kept secret until he was 65.

The young Jung was terrified by what he saw
in an underground cellar-room.

>>>
"Memories, Dreams, Reflections -- Carl Jung"

In the dream I was in this meadow. Suddenly I discovered a dark,
rectangular, stone-lined hole in the ground. [...]

Then I saw a stone stairway leading down.
Hesitantly and fearfully, I descended. [...]

On this platform stood a wonderfully rich
golden throne. I am not certain, but perhaps a red cushion lay on the
seat. It was a magnificent throne, a real king's throne in a fairy tale.

Something was standing on it which I thought at first was a tree
trunk twelve to fifteen feet high and about one and a half to two feet
thick. It was a huge thing, reaching almost to the ceiling.

But it was of a curious composition: it was made of skin and naked flesh, and
on top there was something like a rounded head with no face and
no hair. On the very top of the head was a single eye, gazing
motionlessly upward. [...]

I was paralyzed with terror. At that moment I heard from
outside and above me my mother's voice. She called out, "Yes, just
look at him. That is the man-eater!"

That intensified my terror still more, and I awoke sweating
and scared to death. For many nights
afterward I was afraid to go to sleep, because I feared I might have
another dream like that.

This dream haunted me for years. Only much later did I realize that
what I had seen was a phallus, [...]
<<<


The young Jung was terrified by an image of a tall (white?) gigantic phallus.

_________________

book [Letters to a Young Psychologist & The Golden Coin: Freud or Jung?]
(by) Ignacio Solares - 2014 - ‎Psychology

It's said that when Vladimir Nabokov finished writing his novel [Lolita]
(the perverse adolescent), he recognized the magnitude of his work and
with no pretense of modesty uttered: “I discovered an archetype”.


-------- You can see the entire page in Google.Books.
This book page seems as reliable (believable) as a random Blog page.


HH

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